Ch. 3: Lex Crusher
For Yugi, the time between his invitation and the day of the trip to Egypt seemed to fly by in seconds. Yugi's grandpa agreed to drive him to the airport and see him off. Yugi and his grandpa piled into the car and headed straight for the airport.
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Tristan had just finished packing his things when his phone rang.
"Oh, hey Tea. Yeah, I got an invitation too. Yugi said what? Oh don't worry about it, Yugi does stuff like that from time to time. Come to think of it though, you are a pretty sucky duelist..." Tristan quickly pulled the phone away from his ear as a flurry of words came through the phone. None of them were nice. Tristan quickly hung up. "Maybe I shouldn't have said anything. Oh well, she'll get over it." Tristan grabbed his stuff, climbed on his motorcycle, and headed to the airport.
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"Yahhhh! I'm never gonna make it in time!" Joey yelled, "Now where are my lucky Bananas in Pajamas boxers?" Suddenly, Serenity burst into Joey's room.
"Joey! We'll be late if you don't hurry up! If we miss the plane ride, neither of us will be in the tournament!"
"Look Serenity, yellin' at me right now isn't helpin'! Where are those boxers?"
"I don't want to miss out on my first chance at a real duel monsters tournament. I can see it now: Serenity, the Queen of Games!"
"You mean the Queen of Gags," Joey said under his breath. "Ah, found'em!"
"Good, now let's go." Serenity said sourly.
"What happened to you? You use ta' be so nice and innocent. Now all you do is boss me around!"
"JOEY!" Serenity smacked him on the back of the head, "We don't have time for that stuff right now. Let's GO!"
"All right already. Sheesh."
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Mai picked up her duffel bag and checked it again.
"Let's see, food enough for me and a little extra just in case those knuckle-headed friends of mine forget their food again. Hmmm." Mai looked at her food and thought of the way Joey eats. "On second thought, better throw in a lot more food."
Mai emptied her cupboard, stuffed everything in her huge duffel bag and headed straight for the airport.
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Yugi's grandpa dropped Yugi off at almost the exact same time that Joey and Serenity arrived.
"Hey, Yug!" Joey yelled, "Perfect timing."
"Hey Joey! Uh, hey Serenity." Yugi said. Tristan arrived and got off his motorcycle.
"Hi Yugi, guess what?" Yugi sweat-dropped, "I got invited to the tournament too!"
"Gee, uh, that's great Serenity." Yugi looked over at Joey and Joey just shrugged his shoulders.
"I know it's fantastic, Joey doesn't think so though."
"No I think its cool and all Serenity, it's just that you're a beginner and this tournament is for the big boys like me." replied Joey. Serenity glared evilly at her big brother and smacked him in the back of the head again.
"Joey! How can you be so insensitive! I think you're a great duelist, Serenity." Tristan said with a smile on his face.
"Why you..." Joey said and tackled Tristan.
While Joey and Tristan were wrestling on the ground, Tea arrived.
"Hi guys!" she said cheerfully. Then she turned to Yugi and in a meaner, irritated voice said, "Hi Yugi, my you look sucky today."
"Still mad about that, huh?" Yugi replied.
"Gee, what was your first clue, Yugi?" Tristan and Joey stopped fighting and both of them got up off the ground.
"Hey Tea, no need to hold a grudge..." Tristan didn't finish his sentence because Tea grabbed Tristan's ear and began dragging him off.
"Don't hold a grudge?" Tea said evilly, "I'll show you a grudge..." Tea dragged him behind the nearest terminal and within a few seconds, Tristan began screaming for mercy. They both soon reappeared. Tea looked much more content while Tristan was limping and holding his red ear. Tea looked around and noticed that Serenity was there.
"Oh, Serenity? You got invited too?"
"Yep, I'm going to be the best female duelist in Egypt."
"You mean that you'll be the best female duelist next to ME, in Egypt."
"No, I meant that I will be the best."
"Oh yeah? You think you could beat me in a duel, Serenity?"
"You bet I could. Anywhere and anyplace." Joey sweat-dropped.
"Hey, uh...sis? You meant anywhere and anytime right?"
"Shut up, Joey."
"You two can fight over who is going to be the best female duelist in Egypt but the answer is obvious that it will be me." Mai strolled up to the gang, looking cocky as ever.
"Oh...That's right. Mai will be going..." Tea said softly, "But that means that I will be the 2nd best female duelist in Egypt."
"What?" Serenity yelled, "No, I am going to be the 2nd best female duelist in Egypt."
"Oh yeah?"
Mai walked over to Joey and Yugi and smiled. "I hope those girls aren't fighting each other the entire trip." Yugi and Joey chuckled as the fight between Tea and Serenity continued. "What happened to your sister Joey? She used to be so sweet and...naive."
"Yeah, tell me about it." Joey replied and rubbed his head where Serenity had hit him. "If I knew Mai, I would have done somethin' about it a long time ago and saved myself the trouble." Joey sighed.
"Excuse me. You are Joey Wheeler, am I right?" A boy with spiky-blond hair and movie-star shades said as he walked up to the gang. Serenity suddenly stopped yelling while Tea continued to claim that she was a better duelist. Serenity took one look at the boy and began to swoon.
"H,h,hot..." she said quietly. Tristan saw how she was acting and was immediately jealous.
"Hi, my name's Lex Crusher. I'm the number one duelist from the United States."
"Really?" Yugi said, "I thought that Rebecca was the national champ?"
"Huh?" the boy turned and looked at Yugi, "Who might you be?" The entire gang fell flat on their faces. Tristan was the first to get up.
"You recognize Joey but you don't recognize Yugi Muto? The undisputed world champ and King of Games?" Tristan asked.
"Now that you mention it..." Lex replied, "Yeah, I see. Sorry Yugi Muto, I just thought that...well...you know...you were a bit...taller." Yugi fell flat on his face. "I beat out Rebecca for the national title this year. And yes, I recognized Joey Wheeler." Joey beamed with pride. "You see, Joey is well-known in the United States."
"See, guys! I'm famous over there. It must be because of my extremely amazing dueling skills." Joey said and puffed out his chest.
"Actually, you are well known because of your extremely amazing luck and horrible dueling skills. No one can figure out how a novice like you wins all the time." Joey fell flat on his face, again. The gang all chuckled.
"What?" Joey said, "This is an outrage! I am a great duelist!" Lex Crusher laughed and took off his shades. Serenity began to blush and day-dream while Tea was still going on about how great of a duelist she was.
"Want to prove it, Joey Wheeler?" Lex Crusher offered.
"You got it. Let's duel right here and right now." Joey said angrily.
"Wait, Joey," Yugi said, "You can duel him in the tournament. We are going to have to board the plane soon and..." But Yugi's comments fell on deaf ears and Joey pulled his duel disk from his bag. Lex Crusher did the same.
"All right Mr. Wheeler, I'll duel you if you want to protect your honor. But we need to make this duel interesting. How about the winner of the duel gets to pick one card from the losers deck and keep it. Sound good to you?"
"Joey," Yugi said, "You shouldn't..."
"You got it, Crusher." Joey interrupted. Yugi looked down at the ground and sighed. Tea finally stopped talking and turned her attention to see what was going on between Joey and his new adversary.
"All right then, let's duel." Lex Crusher said. Both players placed their decks into their duel disks, the holo-imagers activated, and the life point counters set to 4000. "Feel free to go first Wheeler."
"Fine, I will." Joey drew his first six cards and looked at them. 'Not a bad starting hand if I do say so myself.' "I set two cards face-down and summon Tiny Wing Guard(1200/1500) in attack mode." A small masked fighter with a flowing cape appeared on the field.
"My move," Crusher drew his first six cards and smiled. "What luck. I doubt that you drew as many good cards as I have in your first draw. First I play the magic card Flattery Token. Flattery Token allows me to create a 0/0 gold token and put it on your side of the field in defense mode."
"Huh?" Joey said, "Why would you give me an extra monster?"
"I'll show you why. I can now special summon the Fiend Mega-Cyber(2200/1400) in attack mode." A huge, golden robot with impressive armor appeared on the field.
"What? You can't summon a level six monster without a sacrifice first."
"Wrong Wheeler. I can special summon Fiend Mega-Cyber if you have two or more monsters than me on the field. And since it was special summoned, I can still normal summon a monster. I summon Giant Orc(2200/0) in attack mode. And now I'll have my monster attack your Tiny Wing Guard. Mega-Cyber, attack the Tiny Wing Guard with dark robotic energy. The giant robot charged up a huge blast and obliterated the small caped warrior. "You lose 1000 life points. I could attack your token but that will cause my Giant Orc to switch to defense mode so I'll end my turn by putting three cards face-down."
"My move," Joey drew a card. 'Heh. This will rock his world.' "I play the magic card, Raigeki." A huge bolt of lightning flashed and blew both of Crusher's monsters into thousands of pieces.
"What? How is that possible? You don't have a Raigeki..."
"Obviously, I do. I got it during battle city when Marik messed with my deck. Now you are open for a direct attack. I now sacrifice the token you put on my side of the field to summon The Legendary Fisherman(1850/1200)." A Man with a spear appeared riding a huge, menacing, blue shark. 'I can risk attacking because I still have some good face-down traps.' Joey thought, "All right, Legendary Fisherman, attack Crusher's life points directly." The fisherman launched his spear directly at Lex Crusher.
"Just the play I was hoping for. I activate my three face-down cards, Negate Attack and two Enchanted Javelins!"
"That's bad news Joey!" Yugi yelled from the side.
"Don't worry Yug, I got it taken care of." Joey replied. The fisherman's attack stopped and Crusher's life points went up by 3700 points. "Wha? Your life points went up."
"Exactly Wheeler. Enchanted Javelin allows me to increase my life points by your attacking monster's attack points. When I activated both of them, I gained 3700 life points to give me a total of 7700 Life points. Your fisherman's attack was then stopped by my all powerful trap card, Negate Attack. So not only did you not damage my life points, but you gave me a huge lead in this duel."
"Not exactly, your traps activate my trap card. Reveal face-down card, Reverse Trap."
"What? Shit."
"Reverse trap will subtract the value that you gained from your Enchanted Javelins from your life points instead of adding to them. So now you have 300 life points." Crusher stared at his life points in disbelief.
"I'll admit I gave you less credit than I should have Wheeler, but I won't do it again." Lex Crusher drew his card. "I play Pot of Greed. This card allows me to draw two new cards." Lex Crusher drew his two cards. "Perfect, I play the Houdini's Cape magic card. This card allows me to draw enough cards to fill up my hand to five cards during my draw phases. I'll also play Dian Keto, the Cure Master. Dian Keto will increase my Life Points back up to my original 4000."
"No way! No magic card can give you that much life!"
"Hah, this card can. It refills my life points back up to the starting 4000 no matter how low my life points are."
"That's a cheap card," Mai said to Yugi.
"It only seems like that Mai. That card doesn't just help Lex Crusher. Watch." Yugi replied.
"Unfortunately, using Dian Keto will also raise your life points back up to their original 4000 as well," Lex Crusher said, "To end my turn, I will summon Big Shield Gardna in defense mode(100/2600)." A large man appeared on the field almost completely covered by a shield.
"Fine, I draw." Joey drew the card Hayabusa Knight. "Sweet! I summon Hayabusa Knight in attack mode." A small eagle dressed in armor and having two arms instead of wings appeared on the field. It held two mighty fencing swords. "I also activate the my face-down trap card, Undetected Attacker. This is an equip-trap card and I equip it to my Hayabusa Knight. To activate Undetected Attacker's effect, I have to flip a coin. If I call it right, I get to attack your life points directly with my Hayabusa Knight. But If I call it wrong, I lose life points equal to Hayabusa Knight's attack power. But before I flip my coin, I will increase Hayabusa Knights's power with Magical Sword. This card increases his attack to 1500. Now, coin flip, go." A holographic coin flew into the air and Joey called tails.
"Finally, the part of the duel that you base on luck. Tell me Wheeler, how lucky do you feel today?" Lex Crusher crooned mockingly.
"Oh, Joey. Still basing your duels on luck. Huh, dopey-kid. You'll never change." Mai said to herself under her breath. The coin came crashing to the earth and slowly spun around to finally reveal tails.
"Oh well," Lex Crusher said, "It's only 1500 life points. You won't get that lucky later."
"Oh it's more than 1500 life points you're gonna lose, Crusher" Joey yelled and wiped sweat from his brow, "Now, Hyabusa Knight attack his life points directly with your special double strike."
"What? Double strike?" The bird knight flew past the Shield Gardna and stabbed Lex Crusher twice with it's holographic blades.
"Now you are down to 1000 life points because Hyabusa Knight attacks twice per turn."
"Grrr. I'll pay you back for that Wheeler. I draw four cards to replenish my hand thanks to Houdini's cape." he drew his four cards. "Hmmm. I put two cards face down and summon Richizu(1700/1800) in defense mode." A small lizard appeared on the field curled up in a defensive position. "Richizu's special ability allows me to destroy one monster on my opponents side of the field if I have less life points than that opponent. I choose to destroy the Legendary Fisherman." Richizu shot out a flaming blast from it's mouth towards Joey's fisherman. The blast engulfed the monster and shattered it into thousands of pieces.
"No! My Legendary Fisherman! But wait, why didn't you destroy my Hayabusa Knight? If I call a coin toss correctly agian then I will win the duel."
"True, quite true. However this card that I have face-down will win the duel for me if your toss fails. You are free to risk it, though. Heh heh, your turn."
"I draw," Joey drew a card. 'Hmmm. This card won't help. And I don't want to try Undetected Attacker's effect because it may cost me too many life points...' Joey thought. "I end my turn."
"How dissapointing. I was hoping to base the outcome of this duel on your infamous luck but no matter. First off my draw phase will activate one of my face-down cards, The Pain of Numbers. This trap card allows me to deal 1000 damage to your life points for every card I draw. And since I have Houdini's Cape on the field, I get to draw three cards and replenish my hand. Which means you will lose 3000 Life Points."
"Wahhh! No way!"
"Yes way. Now I will use Icazubu. This magic card allows me to gain 1000 life points for every monster I sacrifice. I choose to sacrifice Richizu. Now I have two thousand life points again. The lead is mine."
"For now."
"Not quite, Wheeler. This duel is over already."
"What? What are you talkin' about?"
"Use your head. Next turn, I will deal at least 1000 life points to you for the cards I draw because of my Houdini's Cape and Pain of Numbers combo. Which means you will lose. Unless you can somehow pull a miracle out of your hat. And I know you can't use that equip-trap card to beat me because I use this, Remove-Trap." The Undetected Attacker card dissapeared from the field. "You should have tried to beat me with that when you had the chance."
"I haven't lost yet Crusher. I have one more turn to beat you. And I bet that that's all I'll need. Care to take my bet? I am awfully lucky..." Crusher looked a little unerved, but still tried to act confident.
"Fat chance. But indulge yourself. I don't mind."
'Aw man, he's right,' Joey thought, 'If I don't draw the card I need, I'm toast. Come on deck, don't fail me now..." Joey drew a card and stared at it blankly.
"What's the matter Joey. Cat got your tongue?"
"Heh, as a matter of fact, yes."
"Huh?"
"I now summon the monster that will win this duel for me. I summon Copycat and play it as the Fiend Mega-Cyber(2200/1400)." Lex Crusher began to laugh.
"Hah. What a joke! That card is way too weak! It can't break through my defense monster, Big Shield Gardna. Hah, you are such an imbecile."
"You can call me names all you want, but I've got you beat. Copycat attack Big Shield Gardna!" Lex Crusher continued to laugh as Copycat, in the form of the robotic fiend, attacked Big Shield Gardna and was reflected away.
"Hah, a lot of good that did you! All you did was lower your life points by 400 points. Ah hah hah."
"I did a bit more than that."
"Huh?" Lex Crusher stopped laughing. "Okay Joey, I'll humor you. What else did you do?"
"You see Crusher, while your Big Shield Gardna has a huge defense, he has an ability that makes him easy to destroy." Lex Crusher suddenly became rigid.
"His ability...Oh shit."
"That's right, when he gets attacked, he switches to attack mode."
"What? But how did you know that?"
"I've watched my pal Yugi duel with that card a lot. So it's thanks to him that I was able to beat you."
"Ahh! No!" Big Shield Gardna stood up and moved it's shield to it's side.
"Now that your is in attack mode, I can do 1400 life points damage by attacking him with Hayabusa Knight and do 1500 direct damage by attacking with Hayabusa Knight again. Not so confident any more, are ya'?" Joey looked at Lex Crusher who looked quite nervous and irritated.
"Good Strategy, Wheeler. Attack whenever you want."
"Okay, Hayabusa Knight, attack the Big Shield Gardna and then his life points!" The creature flew over to Big Shield Gardna and quickly decapitated the monster reducing Lex Crusher's life points to 500. Then it dashed toward Lex Crusher himself."
"Brilliant play, Wheeler. You are much better than I thought. But I will not lose today. I activate my last face-down card, Attack and Receive. Since you attacked my life points, my trap card causes you to take 700 points of damage, which will wipe your 600 measly life points out as well." The Hayabusa Knight slashed Lex Crusher reducing his life points to zero while the trap card reduced Joey's life points to zero also.
"Wha'?" Joey said, "A draw? Oh well. Coulda' been worse." All of the holograms disappeared and the two duelists walked to the center of the field to shake hands.
"That was one hell of a duel Wheeler." Lex Crusher said as he shook Joey's hand, "You are a much better duelist than I gave you credit for being. I am sorry if I offended you."
"Hey man, no harm done," Joey replied. The gang walked over to congratulate the two duelists but before they could say anything an announcement came over the airport intercom, "This is the last call, all passengers who intend to travel on special flight 886 to Cairo, Egypt must board the aircraft immediately. I repeat..."
"Uh oh," Yugi said, "We better board the plane now." Everyone agreed. They all quickly headed for their terminal. Only Lex Crusher and Serenity stayed behind. Serenity was still in her swooning trance. Joey quickly noticed that Serenity was not with the group. He turned around and yelled to her:
"Serenity! You're going to miss the plane. I thought you wanted to be the Queen of Gags, I mean..."
"What did you say? Joey, I'm gonna..." Serenity stopped screaming at her brother and turned around to look at Lex Crusher. "You are coming too, right?"
"Yes, but not on that plane."
"Then how are you going to get to Egypt?"
"I have my own private jet." Lex Crusher yelled back.
"Ohh..." Serenity said softly. She gave Lex Crusher a wave and then turned and ran to catch up with the group. Crusher took his shades and placed them back on his face. 'Joey Wheeler...You and I will duel again soon. And next time, you won't be so lucky.' A somewhat wicked grin came to his face. "I can't wait for that day..." Lex turned around and sauntered off towards his private jet.
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Dave: So how do you like Joey's new nemesis? Anyway, I really need people to send me some duelist Ideas. I always like to use duelists from other writers' stories. So tell me their names, what they look like, personality, etc. Either leave their info in a review or E-mail your ideas to: Cosmicspud@hotmail.com.
I'll try my best to get another chapter up during Christmas break but no promises. Thanx.
For Yugi, the time between his invitation and the day of the trip to Egypt seemed to fly by in seconds. Yugi's grandpa agreed to drive him to the airport and see him off. Yugi and his grandpa piled into the car and headed straight for the airport.
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Tristan had just finished packing his things when his phone rang.
"Oh, hey Tea. Yeah, I got an invitation too. Yugi said what? Oh don't worry about it, Yugi does stuff like that from time to time. Come to think of it though, you are a pretty sucky duelist..." Tristan quickly pulled the phone away from his ear as a flurry of words came through the phone. None of them were nice. Tristan quickly hung up. "Maybe I shouldn't have said anything. Oh well, she'll get over it." Tristan grabbed his stuff, climbed on his motorcycle, and headed to the airport.
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"Yahhhh! I'm never gonna make it in time!" Joey yelled, "Now where are my lucky Bananas in Pajamas boxers?" Suddenly, Serenity burst into Joey's room.
"Joey! We'll be late if you don't hurry up! If we miss the plane ride, neither of us will be in the tournament!"
"Look Serenity, yellin' at me right now isn't helpin'! Where are those boxers?"
"I don't want to miss out on my first chance at a real duel monsters tournament. I can see it now: Serenity, the Queen of Games!"
"You mean the Queen of Gags," Joey said under his breath. "Ah, found'em!"
"Good, now let's go." Serenity said sourly.
"What happened to you? You use ta' be so nice and innocent. Now all you do is boss me around!"
"JOEY!" Serenity smacked him on the back of the head, "We don't have time for that stuff right now. Let's GO!"
"All right already. Sheesh."
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Mai picked up her duffel bag and checked it again.
"Let's see, food enough for me and a little extra just in case those knuckle-headed friends of mine forget their food again. Hmmm." Mai looked at her food and thought of the way Joey eats. "On second thought, better throw in a lot more food."
Mai emptied her cupboard, stuffed everything in her huge duffel bag and headed straight for the airport.
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Yugi's grandpa dropped Yugi off at almost the exact same time that Joey and Serenity arrived.
"Hey, Yug!" Joey yelled, "Perfect timing."
"Hey Joey! Uh, hey Serenity." Yugi said. Tristan arrived and got off his motorcycle.
"Hi Yugi, guess what?" Yugi sweat-dropped, "I got invited to the tournament too!"
"Gee, uh, that's great Serenity." Yugi looked over at Joey and Joey just shrugged his shoulders.
"I know it's fantastic, Joey doesn't think so though."
"No I think its cool and all Serenity, it's just that you're a beginner and this tournament is for the big boys like me." replied Joey. Serenity glared evilly at her big brother and smacked him in the back of the head again.
"Joey! How can you be so insensitive! I think you're a great duelist, Serenity." Tristan said with a smile on his face.
"Why you..." Joey said and tackled Tristan.
While Joey and Tristan were wrestling on the ground, Tea arrived.
"Hi guys!" she said cheerfully. Then she turned to Yugi and in a meaner, irritated voice said, "Hi Yugi, my you look sucky today."
"Still mad about that, huh?" Yugi replied.
"Gee, what was your first clue, Yugi?" Tristan and Joey stopped fighting and both of them got up off the ground.
"Hey Tea, no need to hold a grudge..." Tristan didn't finish his sentence because Tea grabbed Tristan's ear and began dragging him off.
"Don't hold a grudge?" Tea said evilly, "I'll show you a grudge..." Tea dragged him behind the nearest terminal and within a few seconds, Tristan began screaming for mercy. They both soon reappeared. Tea looked much more content while Tristan was limping and holding his red ear. Tea looked around and noticed that Serenity was there.
"Oh, Serenity? You got invited too?"
"Yep, I'm going to be the best female duelist in Egypt."
"You mean that you'll be the best female duelist next to ME, in Egypt."
"No, I meant that I will be the best."
"Oh yeah? You think you could beat me in a duel, Serenity?"
"You bet I could. Anywhere and anyplace." Joey sweat-dropped.
"Hey, uh...sis? You meant anywhere and anytime right?"
"Shut up, Joey."
"You two can fight over who is going to be the best female duelist in Egypt but the answer is obvious that it will be me." Mai strolled up to the gang, looking cocky as ever.
"Oh...That's right. Mai will be going..." Tea said softly, "But that means that I will be the 2nd best female duelist in Egypt."
"What?" Serenity yelled, "No, I am going to be the 2nd best female duelist in Egypt."
"Oh yeah?"
Mai walked over to Joey and Yugi and smiled. "I hope those girls aren't fighting each other the entire trip." Yugi and Joey chuckled as the fight between Tea and Serenity continued. "What happened to your sister Joey? She used to be so sweet and...naive."
"Yeah, tell me about it." Joey replied and rubbed his head where Serenity had hit him. "If I knew Mai, I would have done somethin' about it a long time ago and saved myself the trouble." Joey sighed.
"Excuse me. You are Joey Wheeler, am I right?" A boy with spiky-blond hair and movie-star shades said as he walked up to the gang. Serenity suddenly stopped yelling while Tea continued to claim that she was a better duelist. Serenity took one look at the boy and began to swoon.
"H,h,hot..." she said quietly. Tristan saw how she was acting and was immediately jealous.
"Hi, my name's Lex Crusher. I'm the number one duelist from the United States."
"Really?" Yugi said, "I thought that Rebecca was the national champ?"
"Huh?" the boy turned and looked at Yugi, "Who might you be?" The entire gang fell flat on their faces. Tristan was the first to get up.
"You recognize Joey but you don't recognize Yugi Muto? The undisputed world champ and King of Games?" Tristan asked.
"Now that you mention it..." Lex replied, "Yeah, I see. Sorry Yugi Muto, I just thought that...well...you know...you were a bit...taller." Yugi fell flat on his face. "I beat out Rebecca for the national title this year. And yes, I recognized Joey Wheeler." Joey beamed with pride. "You see, Joey is well-known in the United States."
"See, guys! I'm famous over there. It must be because of my extremely amazing dueling skills." Joey said and puffed out his chest.
"Actually, you are well known because of your extremely amazing luck and horrible dueling skills. No one can figure out how a novice like you wins all the time." Joey fell flat on his face, again. The gang all chuckled.
"What?" Joey said, "This is an outrage! I am a great duelist!" Lex Crusher laughed and took off his shades. Serenity began to blush and day-dream while Tea was still going on about how great of a duelist she was.
"Want to prove it, Joey Wheeler?" Lex Crusher offered.
"You got it. Let's duel right here and right now." Joey said angrily.
"Wait, Joey," Yugi said, "You can duel him in the tournament. We are going to have to board the plane soon and..." But Yugi's comments fell on deaf ears and Joey pulled his duel disk from his bag. Lex Crusher did the same.
"All right Mr. Wheeler, I'll duel you if you want to protect your honor. But we need to make this duel interesting. How about the winner of the duel gets to pick one card from the losers deck and keep it. Sound good to you?"
"Joey," Yugi said, "You shouldn't..."
"You got it, Crusher." Joey interrupted. Yugi looked down at the ground and sighed. Tea finally stopped talking and turned her attention to see what was going on between Joey and his new adversary.
"All right then, let's duel." Lex Crusher said. Both players placed their decks into their duel disks, the holo-imagers activated, and the life point counters set to 4000. "Feel free to go first Wheeler."
"Fine, I will." Joey drew his first six cards and looked at them. 'Not a bad starting hand if I do say so myself.' "I set two cards face-down and summon Tiny Wing Guard(1200/1500) in attack mode." A small masked fighter with a flowing cape appeared on the field.
"My move," Crusher drew his first six cards and smiled. "What luck. I doubt that you drew as many good cards as I have in your first draw. First I play the magic card Flattery Token. Flattery Token allows me to create a 0/0 gold token and put it on your side of the field in defense mode."
"Huh?" Joey said, "Why would you give me an extra monster?"
"I'll show you why. I can now special summon the Fiend Mega-Cyber(2200/1400) in attack mode." A huge, golden robot with impressive armor appeared on the field.
"What? You can't summon a level six monster without a sacrifice first."
"Wrong Wheeler. I can special summon Fiend Mega-Cyber if you have two or more monsters than me on the field. And since it was special summoned, I can still normal summon a monster. I summon Giant Orc(2200/0) in attack mode. And now I'll have my monster attack your Tiny Wing Guard. Mega-Cyber, attack the Tiny Wing Guard with dark robotic energy. The giant robot charged up a huge blast and obliterated the small caped warrior. "You lose 1000 life points. I could attack your token but that will cause my Giant Orc to switch to defense mode so I'll end my turn by putting three cards face-down."
"My move," Joey drew a card. 'Heh. This will rock his world.' "I play the magic card, Raigeki." A huge bolt of lightning flashed and blew both of Crusher's monsters into thousands of pieces.
"What? How is that possible? You don't have a Raigeki..."
"Obviously, I do. I got it during battle city when Marik messed with my deck. Now you are open for a direct attack. I now sacrifice the token you put on my side of the field to summon The Legendary Fisherman(1850/1200)." A Man with a spear appeared riding a huge, menacing, blue shark. 'I can risk attacking because I still have some good face-down traps.' Joey thought, "All right, Legendary Fisherman, attack Crusher's life points directly." The fisherman launched his spear directly at Lex Crusher.
"Just the play I was hoping for. I activate my three face-down cards, Negate Attack and two Enchanted Javelins!"
"That's bad news Joey!" Yugi yelled from the side.
"Don't worry Yug, I got it taken care of." Joey replied. The fisherman's attack stopped and Crusher's life points went up by 3700 points. "Wha? Your life points went up."
"Exactly Wheeler. Enchanted Javelin allows me to increase my life points by your attacking monster's attack points. When I activated both of them, I gained 3700 life points to give me a total of 7700 Life points. Your fisherman's attack was then stopped by my all powerful trap card, Negate Attack. So not only did you not damage my life points, but you gave me a huge lead in this duel."
"Not exactly, your traps activate my trap card. Reveal face-down card, Reverse Trap."
"What? Shit."
"Reverse trap will subtract the value that you gained from your Enchanted Javelins from your life points instead of adding to them. So now you have 300 life points." Crusher stared at his life points in disbelief.
"I'll admit I gave you less credit than I should have Wheeler, but I won't do it again." Lex Crusher drew his card. "I play Pot of Greed. This card allows me to draw two new cards." Lex Crusher drew his two cards. "Perfect, I play the Houdini's Cape magic card. This card allows me to draw enough cards to fill up my hand to five cards during my draw phases. I'll also play Dian Keto, the Cure Master. Dian Keto will increase my Life Points back up to my original 4000."
"No way! No magic card can give you that much life!"
"Hah, this card can. It refills my life points back up to the starting 4000 no matter how low my life points are."
"That's a cheap card," Mai said to Yugi.
"It only seems like that Mai. That card doesn't just help Lex Crusher. Watch." Yugi replied.
"Unfortunately, using Dian Keto will also raise your life points back up to their original 4000 as well," Lex Crusher said, "To end my turn, I will summon Big Shield Gardna in defense mode(100/2600)." A large man appeared on the field almost completely covered by a shield.
"Fine, I draw." Joey drew the card Hayabusa Knight. "Sweet! I summon Hayabusa Knight in attack mode." A small eagle dressed in armor and having two arms instead of wings appeared on the field. It held two mighty fencing swords. "I also activate the my face-down trap card, Undetected Attacker. This is an equip-trap card and I equip it to my Hayabusa Knight. To activate Undetected Attacker's effect, I have to flip a coin. If I call it right, I get to attack your life points directly with my Hayabusa Knight. But If I call it wrong, I lose life points equal to Hayabusa Knight's attack power. But before I flip my coin, I will increase Hayabusa Knights's power with Magical Sword. This card increases his attack to 1500. Now, coin flip, go." A holographic coin flew into the air and Joey called tails.
"Finally, the part of the duel that you base on luck. Tell me Wheeler, how lucky do you feel today?" Lex Crusher crooned mockingly.
"Oh, Joey. Still basing your duels on luck. Huh, dopey-kid. You'll never change." Mai said to herself under her breath. The coin came crashing to the earth and slowly spun around to finally reveal tails.
"Oh well," Lex Crusher said, "It's only 1500 life points. You won't get that lucky later."
"Oh it's more than 1500 life points you're gonna lose, Crusher" Joey yelled and wiped sweat from his brow, "Now, Hyabusa Knight attack his life points directly with your special double strike."
"What? Double strike?" The bird knight flew past the Shield Gardna and stabbed Lex Crusher twice with it's holographic blades.
"Now you are down to 1000 life points because Hyabusa Knight attacks twice per turn."
"Grrr. I'll pay you back for that Wheeler. I draw four cards to replenish my hand thanks to Houdini's cape." he drew his four cards. "Hmmm. I put two cards face down and summon Richizu(1700/1800) in defense mode." A small lizard appeared on the field curled up in a defensive position. "Richizu's special ability allows me to destroy one monster on my opponents side of the field if I have less life points than that opponent. I choose to destroy the Legendary Fisherman." Richizu shot out a flaming blast from it's mouth towards Joey's fisherman. The blast engulfed the monster and shattered it into thousands of pieces.
"No! My Legendary Fisherman! But wait, why didn't you destroy my Hayabusa Knight? If I call a coin toss correctly agian then I will win the duel."
"True, quite true. However this card that I have face-down will win the duel for me if your toss fails. You are free to risk it, though. Heh heh, your turn."
"I draw," Joey drew a card. 'Hmmm. This card won't help. And I don't want to try Undetected Attacker's effect because it may cost me too many life points...' Joey thought. "I end my turn."
"How dissapointing. I was hoping to base the outcome of this duel on your infamous luck but no matter. First off my draw phase will activate one of my face-down cards, The Pain of Numbers. This trap card allows me to deal 1000 damage to your life points for every card I draw. And since I have Houdini's Cape on the field, I get to draw three cards and replenish my hand. Which means you will lose 3000 Life Points."
"Wahhh! No way!"
"Yes way. Now I will use Icazubu. This magic card allows me to gain 1000 life points for every monster I sacrifice. I choose to sacrifice Richizu. Now I have two thousand life points again. The lead is mine."
"For now."
"Not quite, Wheeler. This duel is over already."
"What? What are you talkin' about?"
"Use your head. Next turn, I will deal at least 1000 life points to you for the cards I draw because of my Houdini's Cape and Pain of Numbers combo. Which means you will lose. Unless you can somehow pull a miracle out of your hat. And I know you can't use that equip-trap card to beat me because I use this, Remove-Trap." The Undetected Attacker card dissapeared from the field. "You should have tried to beat me with that when you had the chance."
"I haven't lost yet Crusher. I have one more turn to beat you. And I bet that that's all I'll need. Care to take my bet? I am awfully lucky..." Crusher looked a little unerved, but still tried to act confident.
"Fat chance. But indulge yourself. I don't mind."
'Aw man, he's right,' Joey thought, 'If I don't draw the card I need, I'm toast. Come on deck, don't fail me now..." Joey drew a card and stared at it blankly.
"What's the matter Joey. Cat got your tongue?"
"Heh, as a matter of fact, yes."
"Huh?"
"I now summon the monster that will win this duel for me. I summon Copycat and play it as the Fiend Mega-Cyber(2200/1400)." Lex Crusher began to laugh.
"Hah. What a joke! That card is way too weak! It can't break through my defense monster, Big Shield Gardna. Hah, you are such an imbecile."
"You can call me names all you want, but I've got you beat. Copycat attack Big Shield Gardna!" Lex Crusher continued to laugh as Copycat, in the form of the robotic fiend, attacked Big Shield Gardna and was reflected away.
"Hah, a lot of good that did you! All you did was lower your life points by 400 points. Ah hah hah."
"I did a bit more than that."
"Huh?" Lex Crusher stopped laughing. "Okay Joey, I'll humor you. What else did you do?"
"You see Crusher, while your Big Shield Gardna has a huge defense, he has an ability that makes him easy to destroy." Lex Crusher suddenly became rigid.
"His ability...Oh shit."
"That's right, when he gets attacked, he switches to attack mode."
"What? But how did you know that?"
"I've watched my pal Yugi duel with that card a lot. So it's thanks to him that I was able to beat you."
"Ahh! No!" Big Shield Gardna stood up and moved it's shield to it's side.
"Now that your is in attack mode, I can do 1400 life points damage by attacking him with Hayabusa Knight and do 1500 direct damage by attacking with Hayabusa Knight again. Not so confident any more, are ya'?" Joey looked at Lex Crusher who looked quite nervous and irritated.
"Good Strategy, Wheeler. Attack whenever you want."
"Okay, Hayabusa Knight, attack the Big Shield Gardna and then his life points!" The creature flew over to Big Shield Gardna and quickly decapitated the monster reducing Lex Crusher's life points to 500. Then it dashed toward Lex Crusher himself."
"Brilliant play, Wheeler. You are much better than I thought. But I will not lose today. I activate my last face-down card, Attack and Receive. Since you attacked my life points, my trap card causes you to take 700 points of damage, which will wipe your 600 measly life points out as well." The Hayabusa Knight slashed Lex Crusher reducing his life points to zero while the trap card reduced Joey's life points to zero also.
"Wha'?" Joey said, "A draw? Oh well. Coulda' been worse." All of the holograms disappeared and the two duelists walked to the center of the field to shake hands.
"That was one hell of a duel Wheeler." Lex Crusher said as he shook Joey's hand, "You are a much better duelist than I gave you credit for being. I am sorry if I offended you."
"Hey man, no harm done," Joey replied. The gang walked over to congratulate the two duelists but before they could say anything an announcement came over the airport intercom, "This is the last call, all passengers who intend to travel on special flight 886 to Cairo, Egypt must board the aircraft immediately. I repeat..."
"Uh oh," Yugi said, "We better board the plane now." Everyone agreed. They all quickly headed for their terminal. Only Lex Crusher and Serenity stayed behind. Serenity was still in her swooning trance. Joey quickly noticed that Serenity was not with the group. He turned around and yelled to her:
"Serenity! You're going to miss the plane. I thought you wanted to be the Queen of Gags, I mean..."
"What did you say? Joey, I'm gonna..." Serenity stopped screaming at her brother and turned around to look at Lex Crusher. "You are coming too, right?"
"Yes, but not on that plane."
"Then how are you going to get to Egypt?"
"I have my own private jet." Lex Crusher yelled back.
"Ohh..." Serenity said softly. She gave Lex Crusher a wave and then turned and ran to catch up with the group. Crusher took his shades and placed them back on his face. 'Joey Wheeler...You and I will duel again soon. And next time, you won't be so lucky.' A somewhat wicked grin came to his face. "I can't wait for that day..." Lex turned around and sauntered off towards his private jet.
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Dave: So how do you like Joey's new nemesis? Anyway, I really need people to send me some duelist Ideas. I always like to use duelists from other writers' stories. So tell me their names, what they look like, personality, etc. Either leave their info in a review or E-mail your ideas to: Cosmicspud@hotmail.com.
I'll try my best to get another chapter up during Christmas break but no promises. Thanx.